Mike Pence's Problem with the GOP 20 Years Ago Still Resonates Today

We all know that Mike Pence, the not-entirely-popular governor of Indiana, was added to the Republican ticket for a number of reasons. These included: a) his cred with the Bible-banging hayshakers in the party's base; b) his general resemblance to a character in an Allen Drury novel; and c) hey, somebody had to take it. Anyone who took the position was going to look good by comparison with the nominee, and anyone who took the position was going to be drowned out by the Great Trumpet of Absurdity that is blowing from the top of the ticket.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

So Pence has managed to stay above the melee, but he had built himself quite a track record on The Social Issues before he ever took his act nationally. This goes back even further than his false-nose-and-mustache signing of a discriminatory "religious liberty" bill last year—on which he flipped and then flopped—that very nearly blew up Indiana's tourist economy and that even today is bedeviling the people seeking to succeed him.

The good folk at Right Wing Watch have hipped us to how People for the American Way unearthed some material from Pence's days as a star of the Indiana conservative media. (He was far more than the extraordinarily strange cartoonist we have learned that he was.) Apparently, Pence thought the TV ratings of the 1996 Republican National Convention went down the drain because the gathering was a bit too AIDS-friendly.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Writing in the Indiana Policy Review, a magazine published by a statewide think tank of the same name that he once ran, Pence lamented that the 1996 Republican National Convention had become "an endless line of pro-choice women, AIDS activists, and proponents of Affirmative Action." Instead, Pence preferred the divisiveness of the GOP convention held four years earlier, when Pat Buchanan delivered his infamous "culture war" speech. He blamed the 1996 event's relative civility for the drop in television viewership from the previous convention. Pence, now the GOP's vice presidential nominee, was clearly advocating for a smaller-tent Republican Party, one that would not court African Americans, women or the LGBT community. "Like it or not," Pence wrote, "traditional Pro-Family conservatives make up the bedrock of modern Republican electoral success." This seems to be exactly the strategy the Trump campaign is deploying today, believing they can win without the support of moderates or minorities.

Offhand, I'd say Pence called this putt prematurely. Offhand, I'd have to conclude that the 2016 Republican ticket is far more unified than it likes to pretend it is.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.